David Healy sounds European warning as he eyes Conference League progression

Linfield’s second qualifying round tie with FK Žalgiris hangs in the balance after goalless first leg

Davd Healy feels his Linfield side have a great chance of progressing to the third qualifying round of the Conference League but has warned against complacency as they welcome FK Žalgiris to Windsor Park.

The Blues are sitting in a good position ahead of the second leg after a hard-fought goalless draw in Vilnius last week.

Faroese side Vikingur await the winners in the next round with Healy hoping another week of preparation will help Linfield progress to meet them in the next round.

“Going into the Shelbourne games, I’d seen them so many times last year, I’d seen them twice before I played them, so you get to see them physically,” he said.

“It was a wee bit more of a guessing game when we knew we were playing Zalgiris. Coming off the back of losing against Shelbourne, all of a sudden you have three, four sessions before you actually go into it.

“So the preparation basically starts on a downer, because you’ve just gone out against Shelbourne.

“But we’ve done our best. Again, we have brilliant staff in and around us, we got as much footage as we could. I don’t think we were too far wrong in terms of the individual players that we played against.

“Strangely, they changed the shape a little bit. They’ve been playing a 4-3-3 the majority of the season, they’ve changed it to a 3-5-2. So, will that change again?

“Physically, we’ve seen the individuals, they may change as a formation, but we feel more than confident going into the second leg, albeit I certainly will not be feeling overconfident, but I think we have a very good opportunity.

“It’s not a given by any means. They have good players who can hurt you, and if we turn up with a complacency thinking the hard work’s done, that’s certainly not the case. It wouldn’t be the case with the players we’re facing.”